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And now for something a lil bit different

Trying out something a bit more traditional and not so satellite-ish since my usual stuff is such a yawner. I'm kinda liking this except maybe I should keep my old mountain style instead of this new one but I have one more idea to try on the mountains...just haven't done it yet but I wanted to put this up and see if it gets any responses. The first pic is the basic topography and the second is a lil more developed with borders n such. It's also smaller than what I normally do 'cuz this is more of an experiment with a new style to see if I can develop it further before going into my normal scale/size. It's also much lighter than what I usually do so maybe folks will like this better. Took about 6 hours this morning then I had to watch football so I was done before noon

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Last edited by Ascension; 09-28-2008 at 07:24 PM.

If the radiance of a thousand suns was to burst at once into the sky, that would be like the splendor of the Mighty One...I am become Death, the Shatterer of worlds.
-J. Robert Oppenheimer (father of the atom bomb) alluding to The Bhagavad Gita (Chapter 11, Verse 32)

Thanks man I appreciate it. BTW, the lil city icons are just pics of various castles I found on the web and applied some filters, and they're named accordingly except for Ennui 'cuz I got it from Wikimedia so I don't know which castle it is so I just named it the first French word that popped into my head -- ie. boredom. Wow that was a run-on sentence wasn't it, heh?

If the radiance of a thousand suns was to burst at once into the sky, that would be like the splendor of the Mighty One...I am become Death, the Shatterer of worlds.
-J. Robert Oppenheimer (father of the atom bomb) alluding to The Bhagavad Gita (Chapter 11, Verse 32)

okay, those rivers are just plain badass. I love the color gradient that you are using on them. It looks very similar to to shaded relief "biome" maps that Nat'l Geo put out. I really like the subtlety of the political boundaries as well. I think you might have a style that works very well.

Suggestion: Change the landform outline from that raw umber/chocolaty color to a medium blue from your rivers, I think it will soften up the transition from land to sea.

Thanks guys! Glad to know I'm on a right path now. I had debated the stroke on the landforms (2-pixel black in the second image and reduced opacity in the first) but I'm sort of shooting for that "old elementary school geography class wall poster" effect but more modern. I may remove it but I'll give a blue a go...this will change the interior borders to blue as well though since I have the 2-pixel black lines on the same layer. I might change the whole kit n kaboodle back to a 1-pixel stroke but that's barely noticeable. As for the rivers I just draw lightning bolts on a new layer with a 1-pixel and 2-pixel brush then make a selection of this layer and copy the ocean layer and put it on top in order to get the color variations.

Here's some more work done, mostly labeling but I added a really cheesy banner and scale. Need to do still: frame, compass, label the rivers, rework the banner, lots of labeling for mountains and islands and such, and a few other bits that I'm not sure how I want to do them yet but will experiment tomorrow.

GP -- Yeah, me too, these new AH guys have some skillz.

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If the radiance of a thousand suns was to burst at once into the sky, that would be like the splendor of the Mighty One...I am become Death, the Shatterer of worlds.
-J. Robert Oppenheimer (father of the atom bomb) alluding to The Bhagavad Gita (Chapter 11, Verse 32)

Ascension, I think you could really be onto something here. I love the style. Its unique and very artistic. Cool map, great fonts and city iucons too. BUt I agree with other posters. i think the colours are where you really nail it.